1986 national champs Thomas and McDonald are bringing an academy to Cedar Crest and former CCHS and Nittany Lion has started the Pennsylvania Football Academy.

A couple of new ventures are starting in the coming weeks, and if you're a Penn State football fan, you will definitely recognize some of the names involved.

In June at Cedar Crest College, former Penn State teammates Blair Thomas and Quintus McDonald are the most recognizable names involved with four weekend camps being called the I-Am Mobile Training Academy — June 14-15, June 21-22, June 28-29 and July 12-14 — from 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day.

The first two weekends will be football-oriented and the other two weekends will be co-ed and involve multiple sports. Scholarships will be available to assist those who can't afford the sessions.

Allen (A.J.) Davis, a trainer who has worked with boxer Bernard Hopkins, among others, and currently works with student-athletes at Cedar Crest, is also involved with Thomas and McDonald on this venture.

The objective is to develop athletes, but also help kids become productive adults.

"This is a collaborative effort and a layered program to reach the kids in our community at a very young age," Davis said. "You see a lot of athletes today who become prima donnas and get out of control. We want to develop young athletes who will know how to keep themselves under control and learn to do the right things."

Thomas, an All-American running back and McDonald, an outstanding outside linebacker, were members of the Nittany Lions' 1986 national title team and went on to play in the NFL.

"This area has a lot of kids who are involved in sports and combining the expertise that Quintus and I have with the game of football with A.J.'s training facilities and techniques, we want to give kids the background and knowledge they need to grow," Thomas said.

"We really want to teach kids the fundamentals of football, such as the right way to tackle. A lot of people want to get involved and coach, but they're teaching them the wrong things. We want to make sure the kids here and across the state of Pennsylvania can get some good, sound, fundamental coaching that will help them in their careers."

Thomas and McDonald both emphasize that their sessions will be about more than just football, however.

McDonald has used his deep faith in God to kick chemical dependency issues and now wants to kids develop strong character and avoid the youthful mistakes he made.

"We want kids to understand that not everything is going to go their way in life," he said. "We want them to understand that when things don't go well, you pick your yourself up, keep your head up and line up and do it again. You continue to work hard and continue to get better and that's with football and every aspect of life.

"We want to them to learn the principles of good character and that's respect, attention, communication … it all comes back to the fundamentals of life. But it begins with respect — for yourself and for others."

Thomas, who grew up in Philadelphia, agreed.

"Everybody will go through adversity in their lives and not everybody is going to be born with a silver spoon," he said. "With all of the anti-bullying stuff going on out there, we want to deliver messages like that at an early age. It won't be the sole focus, but you want to teach these kids the value of being a good citizen and how to treat people. We want them to treat people as they would want to be treated."

Thomas knows a lot of youth organizations and has seen a lot of them lose focus and get away from the intangibles that are most important.

"A lot of youth teams concentrate on winning games, but we want to touch on all of the aspects of what it takes to be a good athlete," he said.

For more information about the training academy, go to i-am-recycling.org.

PA Football Academy

Mike Cerimele, another former Penn Stater, has begun the Pennsylvania Football Academy along with former Bethlehem Catholic and Bloomsburg standout Mark Scattene.

The academy is an outgrowth of the Game Time Fieldhouse/Velocity Sports Performance business that Cerimele, also a former Central Catholic standout, runs.

"The concept is to provide our youth and high school football athletes with superior position specific instruction," Cerimele said. "We will accomplish this with our highly experienced coaching staff."